Go on
by ScouterFight
Summary: Months after the end of the war, Qrow visits Summer's gravesite at the cliffs and ponders what impact the end of the war had on the entire world and on his family.


Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author of this story. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any previously copyrighted material. No copyright _infringement_ is intended.

So unpleasant business out of the way, have fun with reading.

A/N: Warning 'Major Character Death' (mentioned)

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The final battle, it still felt wrong to call it that. It would certainly not be the last fight, in this long and unnecessary war. Qrow knew that there would still be many fights, battles, and even more bloodshed, but it this battle would be the one which would decide the fate of their world once and for all.

But what was worse was that Qrow knew that two of the most important humans in his life were at the front leading the charge against an enemy which should not be faced by a group of young adults.

Then team RWBY and the rest of team JNR were still only teenagers barely young adults and yet, they had the fate of the world on their young shoulders.

As he was busily killing Grimm and pondering, a much more dangerous foe sneaked upon him. He heard the hum in the air as her weapon cut through it and swung his weapon, in sword-mode, around to block the swing of his twin.

"It has been a while dearest sister," he joked and saw the eyes which he knew so well, narrow. The only thing he could recognize her face behind that horrible mask.

"Don't call me that!" she growled at him before attacking again.

"Oh, did I punch the wrong button? But you are right you are not my sister anymore, you are a traitor, a monster. You tried to kill your own daughter for Dust's sake!"

He blocked her attack before retaliating.

"I did not try to kill her!" Another attack.

"Then what are you calling your actions?" Another block.

Both jumped back a few steps. Circling each other like hungry predators waiting for the right moment to strike.

She did not have an answer to that and to be honest he had not been expecting one.

With a growl, he jumped forward once again and clashed their weapons against each other. For a while they went back and forth, slashing at each other with their swords. Both with the intent to finally end it once and for all.

But Qrow was not able to concentrate. He knew that his nieces were both up there, in Salem's fortress facing the monster who was responsible for all this terror, all this chaos, and destruction, for all the deaths these last years. And it showed that he was not able to stay focused his swings were sloppy and he was always nearly a bit too slow to block her attacks.

The separated for a few moments both to catch their breath and give their Aura's a chance to recharge.

And it seemed as if his sister has noticed his internal struggle too.

"You are distracted. Are you scared that you could seriously hurt me? Don't worry, you do not need to be, you won't get the chance to do much damage," she taunted him.

"He, I'm not worried about hurting you. I'm worried about my nieces. Do you remember them, Ruby and Yang? Both are up there fighting against all this unnecessarily slaughter. Your own daughter is up there."

He pointed his finger at the looming fortress.

"The daughter you abandoned is up there and she is in serious danger, fighting against that monster, whom you serve. I have just one final question before I end what I started. Would you be able to kill Yang right here and right now if she would be standing in front of you, as an enemy?"

The woman did not answer.

"Typically," he scoffed

"Well, let's finish this so I can help my family."

"I could not agree more."

He hefted his long sword over his should and widened his stance. Without giving his former sister and teammate a chance to get ready, he charged.

Qrow jumped over falling debris, broken stairs and the general destruction a battle or an explosion always left behind.

He rushed through the long hallways following his instincts in the direction which led him towards the throne room.

He could still picture the massive explosion in his mind's eyes, while he and Raven had been fighting. The shockwave had thrown them both over the edge of the raised platform they had been fighting on right into the belly of the Atlesian-forces campsite.

Winter's troops had not hesitated for one second before capturing Raven, while two soldiers had helped him to his feet. Last, he had seen her, was as she was being transported to specially prepared cells. They had hoped to capture Salem's closest allies. And the cells were specially prepared for each and every one of them. But Qrow knew that his sister probably would find a way to escape, anyway.

There had been no time to ponder on that issue because Winter had grabbed him and together they rushed into the direction of the epicenter of the explosion. He knew that his nieces were involved in this.

And now both Winter and Qrow raced towards the throne room, the epicenter of the explosion. He was not the only one whose family was involved in the direct confrontation against Salem. Her little sister, his niece's partner had been right in the middle of that explosion too.

They raced around one last corner and before him stood the giant doors which led into the throne room. Well, they should have been standing there but both massive doors had been clearly blown out of their holdings. Shattered and broken they laid on the cracked ground.

Qrow tried his best not to picture his nieces in such a state, but they were only human and those doors were made from solid steel, by the looks of it.

He stepped over the broken doors, Winter right behind him, and because of that, she bumped into him as he stopped abruptly.

"Qrow, what the-?"

But he did not answer her, his throat constricted and he could barely breath let alone speak. His legs shook under him and he fell to his knees, the sharp debris that layered on the ground, dug into his skin. Winter let out a sharp gasp behind, followed by a painful sob. His eyes blurred and he heard an anguished scream.

Only later would he learn that it was his scream, that had spooked the soldiers, stationed outside of the fortress, into storming the place in fear of finding that an enemy had attacked their leaders. But they only found two broken warriors, one standing, and one kneeling.

Months later Qrow knelt, in a very different place, in front of the gravestones at the edge of a tall cliff. His cloak floated in the breeze behind him. His gaze was unfocused as if he was seeing through the stones which marked the final resting places of those closest to him.

In his mind's eye, he was still seeing that room, especially the torn red cloak and the broken yellow gauntlets. Both of his nieces had died in the final assault. From the reports of the only surviving member of the assault team, Oscar, they knew that Yang had sacrificed her life to save her partners life even before the explosion.

Blake, Ruby, and Weiss, on the other hand, had all died in that fatal explosion. It was the destruction of Salem which led to the eruption of power in the form of an explosion, because not only did they have to kill her body they had needed to destroy her very essence of being, to finally defeat her once and for all. They knew this beforehand and had planned accordingly.

Oscar, Blake Ruby, and Weiss all had channeled their Aura into one fatal attack as had been planned beforehand, but they had miscalculated. The attack had been far too strong and Salem's essence and all of her power, together with the large amount of Aura which had been channeled into the attack, had turned into a large bomb. Killing Blake, Ruby, and Weiss, all three had all been auraless at this point, instantly.

Only Oscar had managed to survive Salem's final trump card, and only because of his connection to Ozpin, who had managed to shield him with his soul, ultimately dying in the process.

All the warriors, the heroes, who had died in the 'big showdown' as it was being called by the media were publicly buried at a special place in the Kingdom of Vale, the 'Heroic-Graveyard', a giant graveyard, where also the heroes of the last big war had been buried, a new section had been built for those who had died to defeat Salem once and for all.

But Qrow and Winter had managed to pull a few strings, and so Team RWBY's bodies had been buried at the same cliff where Summer's grave laid.

Blake having no parents left, as both had died in the war, should have been buried with the rest of the bodies who had nowhere else to be buried, but Qrow knew these four members of RWBY well and he understood that all four would have wanted to be buried together. There had been a time where team STQR had wished for the same thing.

So, a private ceremony had been arranged a few days after the large public and Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang had been laid to rest. It had been a small affair, not a lot of people knew that the graves at the public graveyard had been empty, only close friends and family had been invited. Qrow, Winter, the rest of team JNPR, team CVFY and team SSSN and few other friends.

Qrow tried to wipe the tears away that had fallen from his eyes as he stood up. Just because the war was finally over did not mean that they could relax. No, the hardest part was only just beginning and sometimes the old crow envied his two girls, they did not have to worry about anything anymore. He shook his head and closed his eyes, he should not think like that, Ruby and Yang had achieved so much, they would not want for him to think like that, they should have deserved peace after the war a chance to build and to life, instead only death had greeted them.

And the tears were back, it was just so unfair, he thought. Ruby had not even turned twenty-one, she had not even been allowed to drink yet, and yet she had saved the world. He was so proud of his girls, but oh how he missed them. Ruby's energetic nature that never went away not even during the darkest days during the fight against Salem and her minions. Yang's bearhugs and her puns were things that he never thought he could truly miss so much. He hated that both of them had died so early, they would have become great Huntresses, just like both of them had dreamed since they were small starry-eyed-kids.

But the war had left scars on everyone, the personal ones, the ones that cut deep into the heart and not the flesh, were the hardest to bear, but for his family, that had given everything and had expected nothing in return he would try to move on and live his life, for himself but especially for them.

He turned his back on the six graves behind him, he wanted to drink, but he had sworn his nieces that he would stop after the war. So, he did stop, he owed it to them, those two had sacrificed their lives and their futures for the sake of the world, so he could at least stop with the drinking, for the sake of his nieces. He had broken enough promises in his lifetime, this would be one that he would not, could not break.

As he walked away from the graves behind him he could have sworn that the wind sounded like laughter in his ears, very familiar laughter. He shook his head and left the gravesite. Oscar was waiting for him. He had promised the boy that he would take him under his wing, no pun intended, and that he would train him. That boy had a bright future ahead of him.

A future, his nieces, his girls, and their friends had made possible.

Where many heroes, older, stronger, wiser had failed, they had succeeded.

The world would go on, and so would he, for Tai, for Summer, for Yang, for Ruby and for so many others, he would go on.

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Thank you all for reading. I got the idea for this type of story a few months ago after I had barely started to explore the RWBY-fandom in-depth. So, a few aspects of this is a bit AU but when I revisited this story today I did not want to change it, because well I like how it turned out.

Well, I'm working on longer projects now that I have a bit more free time, because yeah summer-holidays. But I'm also starting my final school year in a few weeks and I have the additional stress because I still have no fucking clue what I want to do when I'm through with school. Paths are all open I just have no idea what **I** want. So, I will write more but I don't know if I'm able to finish anything let alone post finished projects, the writer's block that I currently have, again, isn't making things easier.

I mean I love writing it helps me to relax but I simply have too many different ideas which makes writing very hard (and the upcoming World of 'World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth' in a few weeks will steal even more of my time^^).

Anyway, sorry for my rant but I needed that.

I hope that you liked my first RWBY story and I'm hoping that I'm able to write more for this beautiful fandom that Monty created (rest in peace).

So, thank you for reading and I hope that you leave constructive reviews. If someone feels the need to flame I have just one thing to say: Do it better and post your own story. Thank you very much. This is ScouterFight and I'm out ;).


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